Unlikely Johnson hot prospect now

INDIANAPOLIS - Josh Johnson played high school football 12 miles away from Dennis Dixon, a year behind in class standing but considered light years behind in future prospects.

Dixon starred for San Leandro High, sharing the stage with Kyle Wright of Monte Vista and Sam Keller of San Ramon Valley. They formed one of the most hotly recruited quarterback trios in East Bay history, and all three earned scholarships - Dixon to Oregon, Wright to Miami and Keller to Arizona State.

Johnson toiled in relative anonymity for Oakland Tech in the Oakland Athletic League, where winning a league title as a senior brought him no interest from major colleges before attending the University of San Diego, a Division I-AA non-scholarship school in the Pioneer Football League.

Flash forward to the NFL scouting combine, where Johnson is joined by Dixon, Wright and Keller is regarded as the best prospect of the four.

Dixon, his senior year at Oregon derailed by a torn ACL, said teams have gently suggested his future might be at wide receiver.

Wright never became Miami's next great quarterback, although his size (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) make him worth a look. Keller had his moments at Arizona State before losing his job to Rudy Carpenter and transferring to Nebraska, failing to finish the season as a starter in a program in the midst of a downward spiral.

When Dixon was asked Friday if he knew of Johnson in high school, he admitted, "I did not. As I looked it, I saw (Wright and Keller) as the other two guys on the West Coast who were way up there."

Johnson, a junior when Dixon was a senior, didn't feel any differently. When he started playing football at Tech, he was 5-foot-11 and 145 pounds, content to be cast in the shadow of his cousin, former Cal star and current Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch.

"There was a point in the middle of my senior where I didn't think I'd ever play college football," Johnson said. "I was about 6-feet and 150 pounds and no one was recruiting me. I didn't know what was ahead of me. I just wanted to play college football."

When coach Jim Harbaugh sold Johnson on the idea of playing at San Diego, he managed to accumulate enough money through financial aid, grants and loans to afford tuition. He played small-college football but ran a big time, West Coast system, filling into his body while at the same time filling up a state sheet.

As a senior, following a one game suspension for a violation of team rules, Johnson threw 43 touchdown passes with just a single interception - one that bounced off the chest of his tight end and into the arms of a defender.

A shade under 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, Johnson is regarded as a fast, elusive runner and playmaker, but is not a risk-taker and does not consider himself a run-first quarterback. In his three-year career, Johnson threw 115 TD passes with 13 interceptions. In 15 of his last 26 college games, Johnson threw four or more touchdown passes.

One NFL scout said Johnson was easily the top prospect of the Bay Area quarterbacks at the combine and thought he could go as high as the third round.

There were suggestions Johnson ought to transfer to a Division I-A school after establishing himself at San Diego. Johnson, who enjoyed regaling a table of reporters with the tale of his unlikely ascent, wouldn't hear of it.

"I really felt like there was a reason I ended up there," Johnson said. "My story is crazy. I was small, not recruited, a former NFL quarterback recruits me to a school a lot of people think is San Diego State. As he changed the program around, my life began to change on and off the field."